Orchard Park police, school officials investigating Twitter posts

Orchard Park police and school officials, along with the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, are investigating what were described as “inappropriate messages” about the school district on social media, authorities said Friday.

A note went home to parents Thursday alerting them to the situation.

“These postings are in violation of our district code of conduct,” the note from Superintendent Matthew P. McGarrity said. “Our administrative team immediately began an investigation and are working with the Orchard Park Police regarding the social media postings.”

Police Chief Mark Pacholec declined to give any details Friday but did confirm an investigation is ongoing into the messages, which he called “inappropriate.”

“Very inappropriate,” Pacholec said. No charges have been filed in connection with the messages.

A source told The Buffalo News the posts began appearing on Twitter in early May under the name “Op teachers lounge” and featured the face of a nameless man in a shirt and tie with glasses and a mustache.

The posts are about teachers at Orchard Park High School. They are crude, many of them sexual and some violent. One mentions killing a teacher’s wife.

“There’s slander, and they also took it to another level,” the source said.

“They have no idea who it is,” said the source, but many people at the school believe they were posted by a student or group of students. There’s some information in the posts that students wouldn’t be privy to, the source said. But some at the school believe that such information may have been shared by school staff with students.

Teachers at the school are deeply upset about the remarks in the posts and are looking into civil suits to stop them from appearing on social media, the source said.

School officials learned about the Twitter posts earlier this week. The source said there was a “heated faculty meeting” Friday where teachers complained to the school administration about the situation.